Looking for breakthrough ideas for innovation challenges? Try Patsnap Eureka!

Equipment control apparatus, remote controller, equipment, equipment control method, and equipment control program product

a technology for remote controllers and equipment, applied in the direction of instruments, computing, electric digital data processing, etc., can solve the problems of difficult to reduce impede the reduction of the suffer the difficulty of achieving a smaller size of the remote control apparatus, so as to achieve the effect of less likely to malfunction and easy to reduce the siz

Inactive Publication Date: 2007-05-24
SHARP KK
View PDF0 Cites 25 Cited by
  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] The present invention was made to solve the above-described problems. An object of the present invention is to provide an equipment control apparatus readily made smaller in size and less likely to malfunction, a remote controller, equipment, an equipment control method, and an equipment control program product.

Problems solved by technology

The invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 06-153017, however, suffers difficulty in achieving a smaller size of the remote control apparatus.
Presence of the monitor impedes reduction in size of the remote control apparatus, which makes it difficult to make smaller the remote control apparatus.
In addition, according to the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 06-153017, if the user makes a movement irrelevant to manipulation, malfunction is likely.
If the whole body of the user is displayed on the monitor, tendency to malfunction is particularly noticeable.
The invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-307107 also suffers a disadvantage that malfunction is likely, because the video camera is distant from the human body.

Method used

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
View more

Image

Smart Image Click on the blue labels to locate them in the text.
Viewing Examples
Smart Image
  • Equipment control apparatus, remote controller, equipment, equipment control method, and equipment control program product
  • Equipment control apparatus, remote controller, equipment, equipment control method, and equipment control program product
  • Equipment control apparatus, remote controller, equipment, equipment control method, and equipment control program product

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

first embodiment

[0043] An equipment control apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described hereinafter.

[0044]FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a configuration of the equipment control apparatus and a method of using the same according to the present embodiment.

[0045]FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of the equipment control apparatus according to the present embodiment. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the equipment control apparatus includes a video camera 102 and a main apparatus 103. Video camera 102 is an apparatus that picks up an image of a hand or the like of a user 101. In the present embodiment, video camera 102 is implemented as a color camera equipped with a unit for image pick-up and employing a lens different from a wide-angle lens. Whether a lens may be mounted on video camera 102 or not is determined based on whether the entire image pick-up area is covered by a hand or the like when user 101 holds the hand or the like at a position severa...

second embodiment

[0069] An equipment control apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described hereinafter.

[0070] The equipment control apparatus according to the present embodiment is the same as that in the first embodiment, and the function thereof is also the same. Therefore, detailed description thereof will not be repeated.

[0071] Referring to FIG. 7, the program executed in the equipment control apparatus carries out the following control for output of a control signal. It is noted that the processing in the flowchart in FIG. 7 that has been shown in FIG. 3 described previously is given the same step number, and the processing is also the same. Therefore, detailed description thereof will not be repeated.

[0072] In S320, CPU 110 sets the value of the counter to “0”.

[0073] In S322, CPU 110 determines whether the specific number of the area having the largest specific number exceeds a predetermined threshold value. If it is determined that the predetermined...

third embodiment

[0080] An equipment control apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described hereinafter.

[0081] The hardware configuration of the equipment control apparatus according to the present embodiment is the same as that in the first embodiment described previously, and the function thereof is also the same. Therefore, detailed description thereof will not be repeated.

[0082] Referring to FIG. 8, the program executed in the equipment control apparatus carries out the following control for output of a control signal. It is noted that the processing in the flowchart in FIG. 8 that has been shown in FIG. 3 described previously is given the same step number, and the processing is also the same. Therefore, detailed description thereof will not be repeated.

[0083] In S330, CPU 110 causes memory 112 to store image data read from video camera 102, in a certain area thereof. By storing the image data, memory 112 stores a plurality of images. The plurality of ima...

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
Login to View More

PUM

No PUM Login to View More

Abstract

An equipment control apparatus readily made smaller in size and less likely to malfunction is configured as follows. The equipment control apparatus includes a video camera, a CPU, and a terminal. The video camera picks up an image. The CPU determines whether a color of a pixel forming the image picked up by the video camera represents a color of skin of a human body, counts the specific number indicating the number of pixels of which color represents the color of skin of the human body for an area representing at least a part of the image, and determines whether the specific number exceeds a threshold value. A memory stores the specific number in association with the area. The terminal outputs a control signal of a type corresponding to the area, if the specific number exceeds the threshold value.

Description

[0001] This nonprovisional application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-297876 filed with the Japan Patent Office on Oct. 12, 2005, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to an equipment control apparatus, a remote controller, equipment, an equipment control method, and an equipment control program product, and particularly to an equipment control apparatus controlling every equipment in a non-contact manner by converting data, a remote controller, equipment, an equipment control method, and an equipment control program product. DESCRIPTION OF THE BACKGROUND ART [0003] Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 06-153017 discloses a remote control apparatus including a monitor, an infrared camera detecting an image of a human body, and a CPU (Central Processing Unit) for controlling the display of the image of the human body detected by the infrared camera and superimposed control item areas...

Claims

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
Login to View More

Application Information

Patent Timeline
no application Login to View More
IPC IPC(8): G06F3/00G06K9/00
CPCG06F3/0304G06F3/04817G06F3/04886G06K9/00355G06V40/28
Inventor HATAKEYAMA, KOHICHI
Owner SHARP KK
Who we serve
  • R&D Engineer
  • R&D Manager
  • IP Professional
Why Patsnap Eureka
  • Industry Leading Data Capabilities
  • Powerful AI technology
  • Patent DNA Extraction
Social media
Patsnap Eureka Blog
Learn More
PatSnap group products

Browse by: Latest US Patents, China's latest patents, Technical Efficacy Thesaurus, Application Domain, Technology Topic, Popular Technical Reports.

© 2024 PatSnap. All rights reserved.Legal|Privacy policy|Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement|Sitemap|About US| Contact US: help@patsnap.com